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I believe that the users Corbridge, InaMaka, Getaway, 70114205215, JobsElihu, Keetoowah, at least three anonymous IPs and perhaps others are all socks of the same individual who has displayed a pattern of making hostile and unconstructive edits dating back to at least 2005.
I also believe, but cannot confirm, that this sockmaster has recently abandoned his most recent account, Corbridge, and started yet another sockpuppet, Palmtree6600.
It appears that the Sockmaster does not edit from multiple named accounts simultaneously. Rather, he engages in combative, POV editing for a period of time, accumulating a series of warnings, blocks and other complaints, then abandons the account and starts a new one. However, this is not a case of WP:CLEANSTART because the sockmaster never acknowledges his previous accounts and uses new accounts to evade blocks and avoid scrutiny.
In one instance, InaMaka admitted to making an edit from the IP 98.196.129.137 but claimed that it was a single case of forgetting to log in. However, the volume of the anon edits (200+ from 98.196.129.137 alone) suggests that this is not merely a case of an editor occasionally forgetting to log in, but rather intentional obfuscation.
I believe the six named accounts and the anon IPs are all the work of a single sockmaster for three basic reasons: Timing of account creation/abandonment, multiple edits to several obscure, unrelated articles across accounts, and similar phrasing and tone in edit summaries and talk page discussions.
Note: In the interest of full disclosure, I want to be clear that I have previously had run-ins with InaMaka and Corbridge, as our areas of interest overlap quite a bit. In Corbridge’s case, I opened an RfC/U on 6 April 2011. It was as I was pulling together supporting diffs that I began to notice commonalities with InaMaka. Then, upon further investigation, I discovered the larger pattern involving accounts that predate my involvement with Wikipedia.
24 December 2004: Keetoowah makes his first edit. Initial efforts include complex edits to Condoleezza Rice, Lawrence Kansas, James Naismith, Stem Cells, Bill Self, Robert Byrd and Dennis Moore.
3 December 2005: Keetoowah makes his final edit.
4 December 2005: Keetoowah is blocked for two months per ArbComm ruling re: legal threats.
January – May 2006: Edits as anon IPs, including 72.177.223.95 and 70.114.205.215. Areas of focus include Ward Churchill, Concoleezza Rice, James Naismith, Kansas, Chad “Corntassel” Smith and Stem cells
26 May 2006: User account 70114205215 is created. Initial efforts include high level edits to Ward Churchill, Condoleezza Rice, Stem cells, and James Naismith.
22 June 2006: User 70114205215 is blocked.
14 July 2006: User account Getaway is created. Initial efforts include complex edits to Condoleezza Rice, stem cell, Sam Brownback, Texas 22nd District, Ward Churchill and several notable Cherokee people.
28 September 2007: Getaway makes his final edit, following a series of short blocks and a Wikiquette alert for combative editing.
3 October 2007: JobsElihu account created.
26 October 2007: JobsElihu makes his final edit, following a comment on his talk page that he is a sock of Getaway
6 November 2007: User account InaMaka is created. Immediately begins making multiple high level edits on articles including Bill Self, Rush Limbaugh, Condoleezza Rice, Jenna Hager, Mark Mangino and the University of Kansas.
5 November 2010: InaMaka is blocked for one week for tendentious editing. InaMaka has not made any edits since that block, after making 4,300+ betwen November 2007 and November 2010.
8 November 2010: The user account Corbridge is created, and immediately begins making multiple edits per day with a high level of proficiency.
6 April 2011: Corbridge is notified of an RfC/U regarding his conduct
15:33 GMT 8 April 2011: Corbridge makes his last edit
15:48 GMT 8 April 2011: Palmtree6600 account is created. Initial edits include facts about University of Kansas basketball, a talk page argument regarding the population of Houston, and edits to Kristi Noem.
Naturally, considering the very large number of editors who participate in Wikipedia, there's bound to be a certain amount of overlap between articles edited by a number of different editors. This is particularly true among editors who focus on a particular area of personal interest (politics, sports, music, film, etc.). I would never presume that a simple commonality in articles edited would indicate sockpuppetry.
That being said, when two or more editors display a strikingly similar pattern of edits across a wide swath of unrelated, low-traffic articles, it raises some questions.
In this case, Corbridge, InaMaka, Getaway, 70114205215, JobsElihu, Keetoowah and the anon IPs all share a keen interest in:
• Specific localities in southeast Texas: Spring, Texas; The Woodlands, Texas; Texas 22nd Congressional District
• Duke Lacrosse rape investigation
• University of Kansas basketball players and coaches
• Chad “Corntassel” Smith, the current chief of the Cherokee Nation
• Dan Patrick, a Texas state senator and radio host
• Mark Parkinson, a former Kansas governor
• Karen Handel, a former Georgia Secretary of State
• Republican members of Congress and candidates, ranging from the well-known to the obscure
• Stem cells and “snowflake children”
• Jenna Hager (formerly Bush)
• Ward Churchill, a controversial academic and political activist at the University of Colorado
• Condoleezza Rice
• Sam Brownback
A longer list of low traffic, unrelated articles that have been edited by by multiple socks (with diffs) can be found at Appendix 1.
Finally, I believe Corbridge , InaMaka, Getaway, JobsElihu, 70114205215, Keetoowah and the anon IPs are all socks of the same sockmaster because of striking similarities in the language and tone of edit summaries and in their somewhat uncommon use of the quote parameter in refs.
In edit summaries, the named accounts and the Anon IPs all use the phrase "commentary of Wikipedians" frequently. Of course, this isn't remarkable in itself. However, the repetition and similarity are notable. They also share a peculiar affinity for the words “hooey,” “hogwash” and “horse hockey.” See diffs in Appendix 2.
Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.
While the alleged socks have not been editing concurrently (except in the case of the anon IPs), this case should be taken extremely seriously because of the disruptive, hostile and agenda-driven nature of the edits of this sockmaster. We’re talking about thousands of edits, mostly to BLPs, over the course of at least six years – the damage done to the project by this editor is immeasurable. What’s more, his migration to a new account each time consequences are leveled for his behavior makes clear that he is not editing in good faith and has no interest in respecting either the letter or the spirit of Wikipedia policy.
I’ve included a selection of talk page comments from each of the accounts in question to illustrate this sockmaster’s tendentious editing (Appendix 3), as well as corrective action that has been taken by other editors against the four most prolific socks: Keetoowah, Getaway, InaMaka and Corbridge (Appendix 4). That, combined with the edit summaries and the diffs provided provide more than enough evidence to ban this user, perhaps permanently.
I don’t know enough about Wikipedia (been editing for just under a year) to know whether it’s possible to prevent this sockmaster from just creating a new account and popping back up in a week or two. If it is, I think such an action is certainly appropriate. Arbor8 (talk) 12:58, 20 April 2011 (UTC)
Please list evidence below this line. Remember to sign at the end of your section with 4 tilde characters "~~~~"
For further evidence regarding user's history of sockpuppetry and other accounts mentioned below, see [1]'
Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.
Please list evidence below this line. Remember to sign at the end of your section with 4 tilde characters "~~~~"
Editing the same array of low-traffic, unrelated articles
Same verbage in edit summaries (hogwash, commentary of a Wikipedian)
Wikiquote
Contributed to very low-traffic Wikiquote Kristi Noem, a page that was created and largely edited by Corbridge. Arbor8 (talk) 17:56, 19 May 2011 (UTC)
Prior admission
One of Corbridge's suspected socks, InaMaka (never investigated because the account had gone stale), admitted to making edits from this IP.
Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.
I'm sorry, but checkusers generally do not disclose connections between named accounts and IPs. TNXMan 18:29, 19 May 2011 (UTC)
New editor (>1 month) editing the same constellation of unrelated subjects (conservative politicians, University of Kansas basketball players, the paternal relations of Barack Obama and people of Cherokee heritage) as user Corbridge, who has been blocked twice already for socking. WP:DUCK.
Here are some of MikeJackson's edits. The edits of Corbridge and previous socks Distressed and Palmtree6600 can be found here: [6]
Conservative politicans: Christine O'Donnell, Rick Scott, Daniel Imperato, Bob Turner
University of Kansas basketball players: Tyrel Reed, Russell Robinson, Sherron Collins, Aaron Miles
Paternal relations of Barack Obama: Family of Barack Obama, [7], [8]
People of Cherokee descent: Valerie Red-Horse Arbor8 (talk) 17:39, 12 September 2011 (UTC)
Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.
I'm sorry, but all of the accounts in the archive are Stale. TNXMan 17:50, 12 September 2011 (UTC)
Per WP:DUCK:
Editing the same range of unrelated topics as sockmaster Corbridge and blocked sockpuppets MikeJackson, Distressed, Palmtree6600 et al, including people of Cherokee descent, conservative American politicians, victims/accusers in high profile rape cases, and the relative size of the Houston metro area, as well as specific low-traffic articles Chad "Corntassel" Smith, Debbie Riddle, Michael Reagan, and Michael L. Williams.
See Appendix 1 from May 2011 SPI as well as:
Palmtree6600 (confirmed sock): [13], [14]
8 April 2011: Account Palmtree6600 is created
21 April 2011: Account Palmtree6600 is blocked for sockpuppetry
28 April 2011: Account Distressed is created, first edit is to Gregory R. Ball
13 May 2011: Sock Distressed is blocked, and sockmaster Corbridge is indef account creation blocked
8 June 2011: IP 76 makes first edit by voting in AfD discussion and citing
notability guidelines.
15 August 2011: Account MikeJackson is created.
18 August 2011: IP stops editing after ~6 weeks of steady edits
14 September 2011: MikeJackson is blocked as a sock of Corbridge
16 September 2011: IP resumes editing
Appendix 2 from May 2011 SPI.
IP76 resolves to Spring, Texas, the same place suspected stale sock InaMaka admitted to making anon IP edits from [here]. Arbor8 (talk) 18:17, 20 September 2011 (UTC)
Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.
Per WP:Duck, user Edmonton7838 is clearly a sock of Corbridge based on the following evidence:
(1) Using the same unique verbiage,
(2) Editing the same constellation of unrelated topics,
(3) Timing of account creation/abandonment
(4) Same style of combative editing and claims that any disagreement is "censorship"
(5) Refactoring edits of anon IP 76.31.116.153, which has been named in previous SPIs related to this account, and which resolves to the same place (Spring, TX) as another anon IP that named sock InaMaka confirmed editing from
(1) Same unique verbiage as previous socks
Commentary of a Wikipedian: [17], [18], [19], [20], [21]
(2) Editing same constellation of unrelated topics as previous socks:
Kansas Basketball [24], [25], [26] [27] [28]
Relative Size of Houston [29], [30]
Chad "Corntassel" Smith [31] [32] [33]
Cherokee Nation [34]
Republican political figures [35] [36] [37] [38]
(3) Timing
(Note: For context, much this is copied from previous SPIs; new stuff is in bold)
*19 September 2011: IP stops editing
*4 October 2011: Wikinews account Edmonton7838 created
*8 October 2011: Edmonton7838 account created automatically. Initial edits include adding wikilinks, changing info box templates, and creating redirects.
(4) Combative editing and censorship claims
Combative editing: [39]: "Go edit another article. Oh, by the way, I will continue to edit Elizabeth Warren."
[40] "That's fine. That's your prerogative as omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent Wikipedian admin. Yes, I know that I am not to question the great Oz, but like Toto I feel the need to pull back the curtain on the actions of admins. Have a good day! I'll go now and just wait for you to find a reason to block me for expressing my opinion which just happened to be different than yours. Best,"
[41]: "Get over yourself. I will not stop editing because you are making threats."
[42]: "I do have to engage with you in this conversation and I will not engage with you in this conversation. Please go work on an article and go away from my talk page." (guessing that was supposed to say "I do NOT have to..")
[43] (edit summary)
[44] (edit summary)
Crying censorship: [45] [46] [47] [48]
(5) Refactored IP edit
As IP: [49] As Edmonton7838: [50]
This IP was mentioned in a prior Corbridge SPI here Arbor8 (talk) 19:35, 6 June 2012 (UTC)
Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.
Looks like a duck to me The choice of edits and potential IP links strongly indicate that both live in the same city. Both styles and methods are a match, as are a number of topics. Would like another opinion, but it is quacking for me. Dennis Brown - 2¢ © 11:21, 9 June 2012 (UTC)
User ExclusiveAgent has established a pattern of editing the same unrelated, low-traffic articles as the multitudinous prior socks (see diffs below). Additionally, EA uses the same unique edit summary verbiage ("Commentary of a Wikipedian") as has been previously discussed in this SPI. WP:DUCK
[56], [57], [58], [59], [60], [61], [62]
EA: [75] Prev sock 1: [76] Prev sock 2: [77]
EA: [84] Prev sock1: [85] Prev sock 2: [86]
EA: [87] Prev sock 1: [88] Prev sock 2: [89]
EA: [90] Prev sock 1: [91] Prev sock 2: [92]
EA: [93] Prev sock: [94] Prev sock 2: [95] Prev sock 3: [96] Arbor8 (talk) 20:57, 13 May 2013 (UTC)
Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.
Noticing that ExclusiveAgent stopped editing soon after being accused of being a Corbridge Sockpuppet [97]. This suggests that the account was in fact a sockpuppet, and that the user migrated to a new sockpuppet account. LK (talk) 16:04, 24 September 2019 (UTC)
Checkuser note: I see a lot of work has been done above, but alas the dots I am seeing are way too far apart to be connected for Checkuser purposes. Latest edits in the archive of this case are stale, and the diffs above merely indicate edits to the same article. However they aren't identical edits (for the first four articles I checked), so there's nothing to clearly connect things together. If there is more information available, let me know; otherwise I don't see how a checkuser can help. Frank | talk 12:20, 14 May 2013 (UTC)